Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on September 28, 2021

A conspiracy theorist has been found guilty of stirring up racial hatred through a campaign of antisemitic graffiti, thanks in part to Jewish News.

Nicholas Lalchan, 49, used a black marker pen to deface 17 bus stops and the window of an accountancy firm in north-west London between February and July 2019.

The cost of the damage to Transport for London was said to be 100 for each bus stop.

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Lalchan had admitted criminal damage and having black marker pens to use in the offence.

Following a two-day trial, he was also found guilty of stirring up racial hatred, which he had denied.

A jury at a Nightingale court near the Barbican in central London could not decide on other charges alleging that the criminal damage was racially and religiously aggravated.

Prosecutor David Patience had told the court how Jewish and non-Jewish people alike had been upset at seeing the graffiti and reported it to police.

The graffiti called Jewish and gay people gray aliens, made reference to a new world order and encouraged searches of YouTube and Google for various conspiracy theories, jurors heard.

It appeared in areas including Edgware, Hendon and Finchley with large Jewish communities.

In March 2019 graffiti was reported to police by a Jewish News journalist. The daubing at a bus stop in Edgware, encouraging people to watch clipsincluding:Talmud quotes + (about goyim), which when searched leads to antisemitic videos calling Judaism an evil tradition which promotes paedophilia and that hates non-Jews.

Other videos listed for people to search includeRothschild Trillions quantified and New World Order Agenda, which brings up antisemitic conspiracy theories, with clips about the Rothschilds banking family running the world, and controlling governments and the financial systems.

The graffiti also tells people to search about Kabalah (Jewish mysticism) as well as clips about aliens and an arrest warrant for the Queen and the Pope.

Graffiti at a bus stop in Edgware reported by Jewish News

Other incidents were reported on by Jewish News later in March 2019.

Lalchan was caught after a community support officer recognised him from a still image of the culprit.

When police went to arrest him at his home in Edmonton, north London, he was carrying a backpack containing black marker pens and leaflets saying similar things to the graffiti.

A search of his home produced more leaflets and pens and a USB stick containing material making reference to Jewish people and conspiracy theories.

Lalchan was also incriminated when his handwriting was compared to the graffiti.

The court heard that on being being charged, he said: New world order. The fourth Reich. We will see.

Jurors were told that the defendant accepted it was him that daubed the graffiti on the bus stops but denied it was motivated by religious or racial hostility.

Following the verdicts on Thursday, Judge Judge Gerard Pounder adjourned sentencing until December 1 at Snaresbrook Crown Court.

The outstanding charges will not be proceeded with and the defendant was granted continued bail.

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Conspiracy theorist guilty of stirring up racial hatred with antisemitic graffiti - Jewish News

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Posted By admin on September 27, 2021

After the Anti-Defamation League renewed its call for Tucker Carlson to be fired from Fox News for voicing the racist great replacement theory about immigration, the primetime host had a pithy response: Fuck them.

Carlson was speaking to the former Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly on Sirius XM. He made the comments in question on his show on Wednesday, which averages more than 3 million viewers a night.

Claiming the Biden administration was trying to change the racial mix of the country, Carlson said: In political terms, this policy is called the great replacement, the replacement of legacy Americans with more obedient people from far-away countries.

They brag about it all the time, but if you dare to say its happening they will scream at you with maximum hysteria.

The great replacement theory originated on the far right. Perpetrators of recent mass shootings have cited iterations of the theory in manifestos attempting to justify their actions.

Carlson raised the theory in April, claiming it was not racist but a matter of hardball politics. The ADL chief executive, Jonathan Greenblatt, called for Carlson to be fired.

Lachlan Murdoch, chief executive of the Fox Corporation, wrote back: Mr Carlson decried and rejected replacement theory. As Mr Carlson himself stated White replacement theory? No, no, this is a voting rights question.

This week, Greenblatt repeated his call.

For Tucker Carlson to spread the toxic, antisemitic and xenophobic great replacement theory is a repugnant and dangerous abuse of his platform.

If it somehow wasnt clear enough before to the executives at Fox News that Carlson was openly embracing white nationalist talking points, let last nights episode be case and point.

The Council on American Islamic Relations also said Carlson should be fired.

Kelly asked Carlson how he felt when sure enough the ADL comes after you.

The ADL? Carlson said, laughing. Fuck them.

The ADL, he said, was a noble organisation that had a very specific goal, which was to fight antisemitism, and thats a virtuous goal. They were pretty successful over the years. Now its operated by a guy whos just an apparatchik of the Democratic party.

Its very corrosive for someone to take the residual moral weight of an organisation that he inherited and use it for party.

So the great replacement theory is, in fact, not a theory. Its something that the Democrats brag about constantly, up to and including the president.

And in one sentence, its this: Rather than convince the current population that our policies are working and they should vote for us as a result, we cant be bothered to do that. Were instead going to change the composition of the population and bring in people who will vote for us. So there isnt actually inherently a racial component to it, and its nothing to do with antisemitism.

Kelly also played a clip of Joe Biden speaking in 2015, which Carlson used on Wednesday.

In the clip, the then vice-president says: An unrelenting stream of immigration, non-stop, non-stop. Folks like me who were Caucasian, of European descent for the first time in 2017 will be in an absolute minority in the United States of America, absolute minority. Fewer than 50% of the people in America from then and on will be White European stock. Thats not a bad thing. Thats as a source of our strength.

On Wednesday, Carlson said: An unrelenting stream of immigration. But why? Well, Joe Biden just said it, to change the racial mix of the country to reduce the political power of people whose ancestors lived here, and dramatically increase the proportion of Americans newly arrived from the Third World This is the language of eugenics, its horrifying.

Analysts have shown that the clip is edited misleadingly.

As the Washington Post pointed out, Biden made the remarks as part of about six minutes of commentary, beginning with the fact that the city of Boston came together as a community after the bombing during the Boston marathon.

Im not suggesting that I think America has all the answers here, Biden said. We just have a lot more experience. By that I mean, we are a nation of immigrants. Thats who we are.

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Fresh calls for Fox News to fire Tucker Carlson over replacement theory - The Guardian

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Posted By admin on September 27, 2021

Local organizations are accusing Cobb County Schools of not taking a stronger stance against antisemitism.

COBB COUNTY, Ga. Two Cobb County School District high schools were vandalized with slurs, during the Jewish high holiday, Yom Kippur. Now, theres a petition calling for anti-hate curriculum to return to the classroom.

Local organizations accuse the district of not taking a stronger stance against antisemitism.

The Atlanta Initiative Against AntiSemitism (AIAAS), the Anti Defamation League, American Jewish Committee and Jewish Student Union plan to share a petition to board members during Thursdays meeting.

Lauren Menis, AIAAS co-founder, kept an eye on the petitionjust days before the meeting.

3,401, oh my gosh." she said scrolling through the page. Here were asking people to meet us at the Cobb County School board meeting.

The petition is the organization's response to what they call a lack of response

Thats a problem, she said.

Students and parents found out about hateful vandalism discovered inside two bathrooms at Lassiter High School in Marietta, which was the beginning of Yom Kippur, and holiest day of the year in Judaism.

Just days prior, similar anti-Semitic graffitiwas spotted at neighboring Pope High School. Menis thinks the school board pushed the acts to the side.

These are acts of hate, this is antisemitism and we are asking the Cobb County School Board to name the hate. This time its antisemitism, next time itll be something else.

A district spokesperson tells 11Alive the acts were unacceptable and they have zero tolerance for those kinds of actions.

But Menis wants them to go further, by establishing anti-hate curriculums in the schools.

That would allow this to turn into a teachable moment.

She said many members of the Jewish community will attend the meeting.

We are going to that meeting in force and we will not sit down and take it.

As she prepares to tell the board about the pain inflicted by hateful messages, Menis hopes theyre willing to take notes.

We want to be heard, we want change in Cobb County schools, we want this to be addressed. Thats not that much to ask.

The meeting will be the first school board meeting since the Cob County Board of Health passed recommendations calling for masks in schools.

Some community members are waiting to see how the board handles that as well as the anti-Semitic messages.

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'These are acts of hate' | Petition started calling for Cobb County schools to address antisemitism - 11Alive.com WXIA

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Posted By admin on September 27, 2021

Welcome back to 10 Things in Politics. Sign up here to receive this newsletter. Plus, download Insider's app for news on the go click here for iOS and here for Android. Send tips to bgriffiths@insider.com.

Here's what we're talking about:

With Phil Rosen.

Clockwise from top left: Texas' attorney general, Ken Paxton; the Arizona state Rep. Mark Finchem; the chair of the South Carolina GOP, Drew McKissick; and US Rep. Jody Hice of Georgia. Photos by: Bob Christie/ AP; AP Photo/Meg Kinnard; House Television via AP; Brandon Bell/Getty Images

1. THE MIDTERMS: Getting on Donald Trump's good side is as easy as wailing about "election fraud." Months after losing the 2020 election, the former president remains fixated on clawing his way back. And many of Trump's midterm endorsements seem intended to elevate candidates who have backed his election-fraud claims.

Here's a look at some of the candidates he's backing so far:

Read more about how Trump is trying to put his political allies in charge of running elections.

2. Congress will be busy this week: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi promised last night that lawmakers would vote on a $1 trillion infrastructure plan on Thursday, Politico reports. A procedural vote on the measure is still expected today, which is the date Pelosi originally agreed on with centrists in her party. House lawmakers also plan to vote this week on the core of President Joe Biden's domestic agenda, a $3.5 trillion plan that would dramatically expand the social safety net. There's little room for error, and it's still unclear whether Democrats will remain united in passing both pieces of legislation.

3. German Chancellor Angela Merkel's party narrowly loses: Preliminary results indicate Merkel's center-right party had its worst showing in history, The Washington Post reports. It's also the first time in more than a decade in which the center-left Social Democrats topped Merkel's Christian Democrats. But the results are so close that both sides are pledging to try to form a government. More on the German election results.

4. Rep. Liz Cheney says she was wrong to oppose same-sex marriage: Cheney broke with her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, in 2013 when she announced her opposition to same-sex marriage, causing a public rift with her sister, Mary, who is married to a woman. Mary Cheney applauded her sister for saying she was wrong, adding: "And as her sister I have one more thing that I just have to say. I told you so." More on Liz Cheney's reversal.

Marianne Ayala/Insider

5. Thirty lawmakers have violated a law for stock trades: Insider and several other news organizations have this year identified 30 members of Congress who've failed to properly report their financial trades as mandated by federal law. Their excuses range from oversights, to clerical errors, to inattentive accountants. Check out the list.

6. WHO wants to revive its inquiry into the coronavirus pandemic's origins: World Health Organization officials tell The Wall Street Journal that the investigation will continue to explore whether the virus that causes COVID-19 emerged from a lab. The Biden administration, The Journal reports, has been among those pressing for the investigation to continue. The new group is expected to consist of about 20 investigators. There's no guarantee the new team will have access to China, which has consistently lashed out at the mere suggestion that the coronavirus could have leaked from one of its labs. Here's where the investigation stands, including Beijing's efforts to distract investigators by pressuring them to focus on a US military bioresearch facility.

Gayle King. Michele Crowe/CBS via Getty Images

7. Big changes could be coming to CBS News: CBS News' copresident Neeraj Khemlani has been reaching out, personally and through intermediaries, to high-profile news talent to freshen up the company's programming and reposition CBS News as a pipeline for the streamer Paramount+, Insider reports. The network is also circling outside talent like MSNBC's Brian Williams and the "Top Chef" host Padma Lakshmi. Read more about what the future could hold for CBS heavyweights like Gayle King and Norah O'Donnell.

8. Rep. Matt Gaetz said Tucker Carlson was correct about the white nationalist "replacement" conspiracy theory: The Great Replacement theory has been used by white nationalists and white supremacists who argue that people of color are replacing white populations or people with European roots. In a tweet defending Carlson, Gaetz also called the Anti-Defamation League "a racist organization." The ADL had called for Fox News to fire Carlson over his promotion of the theory. More on his comments.

9. US government requests more personal data than any other country in study: The US had the most requests for Facebook and Twitter information, with 61,528 and 3,429 requests respectively. Facebook also saw six times the number of data requests from the US than from the second-highest country, Germany. The new TechRobot report examined requests from 20 countries in 2019 and 2020.

10. CDC director says trick-or-treating will be OK: Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said children could safely go trick-or-treating on Halloween so long as they did so outdoors. The CDC is still advising against large indoor gatherings.

Today's trivia question: In honor of HBO's "The White House Plumbers," which filmed in Washington over the weekend, who was the Nixon aide responsible for coming up with the term the "plumbers"? Email your guess and a suggested question to me at bgriffiths@insider.com.

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10 Things in Politics: Trump seeking to change election oversight - Business Insider

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Posted By admin on September 27, 2021

Israel is a beacon of light and freedom, and supporting it is a moral choice, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said at his first-ever speech to the United Nations General Assembly on Monday.

Speaking in front of the iconic green marble wall, just over 100 days after he became prime minister, Bennett said that Attacking Israel doesnt make you morally superior. Fighting the only democracy in the Middle East doesnt make you woke. Adopting clichs about Israel without bothering to learn the basic facts, well, that's just plain lazy. Every member state in this building has a choice. Its not a political choice, but a moral one. Its a choice between darkness and light.

Israel, Bennett said repeatedly, is a lighthouse in a stormy sea, a diverse democracy that contributes to the world with its innovations, he stated.

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Pointing to the 38 countries that opted out of last weeks Durban IV Conference marking 20 years since the World Conference against Racism, which devolved into antisemitism and anti-Israel bias Bennett said: This conference was originally meant to be against racism, but over the years turned into a conference of racism, against Israel and the Jewish people and the world has had enough of this. I thank the 38 countries who chose truth over lies and skipped the conference.

Bennett lamented that, for way too long, Israel was defined by wars with our neighbors. But this is not what Israel is about.

Israelis dont wake up in the morning thinking about the conflict. Israelis want to lead a good life, take care of our families, and build a better world for our children, he stated, which means that from time to time, we might need to leave our jobs, say goodbye to our families, and rush to the battlefield to defend our country just like my friends and I have had to do ourselves. They should not be judged for it.

Israelis, the prime minister said, are determined to look ahead, to build a brighter future.

WHILE ISRAEL is focused on doing good, it still faces a threat from a nuclear Iran, Bennett said.

Iran's nuclear weapons program is at a critical point, he warned. All redlines have been crossed. Inspections ignored. All wishful thinking proven false. Iran is violating the [International Atomic Energy Agencys] safeguard agreements and it's getting away with it.

Iran is enriching uranium to 60%, one step away from weapons-grade material, and the world has been ignoring further evidence of its intention to develop a nuclear bomb.

Irans nuclear program has hit a watershed moment and so has our tolerance. Words do not stop centrifuges from spinning, he stated.

Israel will not allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon, Bennett said.

The Iranian regime is weaker than it seems, and it can be stopped if its threat is taken seriously.

As for Irans regional malign actions, Bennett pointed to the Iran-backed terrorist groups on Israels borders, like Hezbollah, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Irans great goal is crystal clear to anybody who cares to open their eyes: Iran seeks to dominate the region, and seeks to do so under a nuclear umbrella, he said.

The prime minister pointed to places in which Iran has spread its carnage and destruction Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Gaza and said they are all in crisis.

Like the Midas touch, Iran's regime has the Mullah-touch. Every place Iran touches, fails, he quipped.

Bennett said that Irans military drone unit threatens the entire world, mentioning the attack on the Mercer Street vessel in which Iranian suicide drones killed a British and a Romanian citizen as well as its proxy armies throughout the Middle East, which it plans to arm with thousands of deadly UAVs.

The prime minister also referred to Iranian President Ebrahim Raisis history of heading a death commission that ordered the murder of 5,000 political activists - and then celebrating the deaths by pocketing the victims money and eating cream puffs.

He celebrated the murder of his own people, by devouring cream cakes, Bennett emphasized. And now Raisi is Iran's new president. This is who we're dealing with.

ON A MORE positive note, Bennett referred to the Abraham Accords - which he called by their name - as rays of light, along with peace with Jordan and Egypt. He said that more is to come.

On Sunday night, Bennett met with Bahraini Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani and United Arab Emirates Minister of State in The Foreign Ministry Khalifa Sharren Almarar, in what was his first meeting with senior officials from Abraham Accords countries. Bennett expressed the importance of marking a year since the accords were signed.

We are stable, we believe in this relationship and we want to expand it as much as possible, he said.

In his speech on Monday, Bennett also compared COVID-19 and political polarization, calling them both plagues that could have devastating results, and saying his government has solutions for both.

In a polarized world, where algorithms fuel our anger, people on the Right and on the Left operate in two separate realities, each in their own social media bubble: They hear only the voices that confirm what they already believe in. People end up hating each other, societies get torn apart. Countries broken from within go nowhere, Bennett said.

The new government has been an antidote and a source of calm and stability: an honest attempt for political normalcy, he stated.

Bennett called his government the most diverse in Israels history and said that it is working toward a shared purpose of unity.

We carry a message: Things can be different. Its okay to disagree... For healthy debate is a basic tenet of the Jewish tradition and one of the secrets to the success of the Start-Up Nation. What we have proven is that even in the age of social media, we can debate, without hate, Bennett said.

The prime minister met with UN Secretary-General Antonioni Guterres and US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield after the speech, and spoke at a Jewish Federations of North America event, at which leaders of other Jewish organizations were present.

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Bennett at the UN: Hating Israel doesnt make you woke - The Jerusalem Post

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Posted By admin on September 27, 2021

More than a million Israelis who qualify to be vaccinated have not yet gotten the coronavirus vaccine. That includes about 110,000 people 60 and over, and about 90,000 between the ages of 50 and 59.

Peoples reluctance to get vaccinated comes despite the fact that the clear majority of seriously ill COVID-19 hospital patients have not gotten the vaccine. Thats particularly true now after the booster shot, has provided even greater protection to Israelis at risk.

Among Israelis between the age of 40 and 49, the number of unvaccinated increases to 145,000 and in the 30 to 39 age group, about 15 percent of the population 180,000 people remain unvaccinated. There are 230,000 people in their twenties who have not gotten inoculated and 350,000 younger people over the age of 12 who are eligible for the vaccine but have not gotten the shot.

Israel recorded 2,616 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, Health Ministry data shows. While Saturday's 2,616 cases seems like a significant decline from 4,937 the previous day, official data shows that only 68,180 tests were conducted on Saturday compared to 118,811 on Friday.

Since the positive test rate slightly declined from 4.3 percent on Friday to 3.96 percent on Saturday, the sudden drop in the number of tests may explain the significant change in the number of new cases. In addition, Israel reported the number of patients in serious condition rose to 711 compared to 694 on the previous day.

Some 1,026 COVID patients are currently hospitalized, of whom 215 are on ventilators. Almost all the patients in serious condition have not been vaccinated, and most are aged 40 to 60.

While 3,189,477 Israelis have already received their booster shot, nine months after Israel first began its vaccination campaign, there are still over 1 million eligible people who have chosen to remain unvaccinated, most of them young people.

The most prominent common denominator among seriously ill patients currently filling up the coronavirus wards and intensive care units of Israeli hospitals is that they are not vaccinated. The change in the profile of seriously ill patients is a result of the more infectious nature of the delta variant, the waning protection that the first two doses of the vaccine provided as well as the government policy that followed the decision to carry out a mass campaign to administer the third shot.

Most of the seriously ill are drawn from among the roughly 240,000 unvaccinated Israelis between the age of 40 and 60. A smaller portion of the seriously ill patients are from among the 400,000 unvaccinated people in their twenties and thirties.

At the beginning of [this pandemic] wave, we were still seeing elderly vaccinated patients hospitalized, who also weathered serious illness better thanks to the vaccine, but theyve disappeared with the administration of the booster shot, said Dr. Noa Eliakim-Raz, the director of the coronavirus department at Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva. Today, were seeing only unvaccinated patients and their illness is more serious the entire way along.

The contrast between vaccinated and unvaccinated patients at the hospital is huge, she said: We can tell from the chest X-ray and the patients vital signs in the emergency room whether theyve been vaccinated even before weve spoken to them.

Its very sad. Young vaccinated people are getting more seriously ill, in a way that they couldnt have imagined, she added.

The situation is similar at hospitals around the country. All of our patients now are unvaccinated, said Prof. Philip Levin, the director of the intensive care unit at Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem. For the past month and a half actually, I havent treated any vaccinated people.

The deputy director of Western Galilee Hospital in Nahariya, Dr. Tsvi Sheleg, made special note of the challenge with patients whose condition goes from serious to critical, who need ventilators and some of whom require ECMO heart-lung machines. These are patients whose pulmonary damage during the illness and afterward is at the level of a disability and they wont return to functioning well. Some of them wont survive at all, he said. The vast majority of this group of patients is unvaccinated, he noted. Unvaccinated people are playing a game of roulette and running the risk of very serious illness.

Prof. Dror Mevorach, the director of the coronavirus department at the Hadassah University Hospital at Ein Karem in Jerusalem said that at his hospital, more than 90 percent of the patients in critical condition and among those requiring an ECMO machine are unvaccinated young people.

Of particular concern, recently noted the director of the Rambam Healthcare Campus in Haifa, Prof. Michael Halbertal, is that the rate at which seriously ill patients are dying in the current COVID-19 wave is very high. If in prior waves we would see a fatality for every eight or nine hospitalized patients, in the current wave, the number is one in five, he said.

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In Israel, young and unvaccinated replace elderly in COVID wards - Haaretz

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Posted By admin on September 27, 2021

Hundreds of Iraqi leaders and activists gathered in the countrys Kurdistan region on Friday to publicly call for full normalization with Israel.

The group, which includes Sunni and Shiites, youth activists and tribal leaders, said the next step after the dramatic announcement would be to seek face-to-face talks with Israelis.

The 312 Iraqi men and women issued their statements from a hotel in Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan region. The conference was organized by the New York-based Center for Peace Communications, which works to advance engagement between Arabs and Israelis, and to protect activists supporting normalization.

The Times of Israel is covering developments from the conference as they happen.

One of the speakers explained that the group believes in peace with Israel so that we might live in a stable region that brings conflicts to an end. We believe in it because we want our region to be a peaceful one, in which Israel is an inseparable part of the panoramic whole, and in which all peoples have the right to live in security.

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We demand that Iraq join the Abraham Accords internationally, wrote Wisam al-Hardan, leader of the Sons of Iraq Awakening movement, in The Wall Street Journal on Friday. We call for full diplomatic relations with Israel and a new policy of mutual development and prosperity.

The Sons of Iraq formed organically in 2005 as tribal leaders in Anbar province and ex-Iraqi Army officers allied with US forces to fight al-Qaeda.

Some of us have faced down ISIS and al-Qaeda on the battlefield, wrote Hardan. Through blood and tears we have long demonstrated that we oppose all extremists, whether Sunni jihadists or Iran-backed Shiite militias. We have also demonstrated our patriotism: We sacrificed lives for the sake of a unified Iraq, aspiring to realize a federal system of government as stipulated in our nations constitution.

A plane arriving at Lod Airport carrying Jewish immigrants from Iraq and Kurdistan via Tehran, May 1951. (GPO)

Calling the expulsion of Iraqs Jews the most infamous act in the countrys decline, Hardan said Iraq must reconnect with the whole of our diaspora, including these Jews.

We reject the hypocrisy in some quarters of Iraq that speaks kindly of Iraqi Jews while denigrating their Israeli citizenship, and the Jewish state, which granted them asylum.

Hardan also said that Iraqs laws criminalizing contacts with Israelis are morally repugnant.

He wrote that while countries like Syria, Libya, Lebanon and Yemen are mired in war, the Abraham Accords represent a hopeful trend of peace, economic development, and brotherhood.

In this September 15, 2020 file photo, from left: former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former US president Donald Trump, and United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan, sit during the Abraham Accords signing ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

We have a choice: tyranny and chaos, or legality, decency, peace and progress, he wrote. The answer is clear.

Seven working groups will be formed in the wake of the conference to address ties between Iraq and its Jewish diaspora, trade and investment, educational reform, repealing anti-normalization laws, peace communications in Iraqi media, artistic collaborations, and supporting peace activists in other Arab countries that dont recognize Israel.

The Abraham Accords were signed on the White House lawn in September 2020 between Israel, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. Morocco and Sudan signed normalization agreements with Israel in the ensuing months.

Asked by Times of Israel for a response to the event in Iraq, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said: The event in Iraq is a source of hope and optimism. Israel is always searching for ways to widen the circle of peace and we are working with friends across the world to make that happen.

Normalization benefits the entire region and helps us move away from the extremism and chaos offered by negative actors towards stability, prosperity, moderation and cooperation. The Jewish people share a deep historical connection to Iraq. So to the Iraqi people we say today we have far more that unites us than divides us and far more to gain from peace than from unnecessary conflict.

Iraq is officially at war with Israel and is a firm supporter of the Arab League boycott of Israel. Its passports are not valid for travel to Israel.

In 2019, Iraqi ambassador in Washington Fareed Yasseen said, There are objective reasons that may call for the establishment of relations between Iraq and Israel, speaking in Arabic at an event entitled How Iraq Is Dealing with the Current Regional and International Developments at the Al-Hewar Center for Arab Culture and Dialogue in Washington.

He noted that there is an important Iraqi community in Israel and they are still proud of their Iraqi attributes. At their weddings, there is Iraqi culture of celebration. At their weddings, there are Iraqi songs, the veteran diplomat, who has served in DC since November 2016, went on. Yasseen also noted outstanding Israeli technologies in the fields of water management and agriculture.

But the objective reasons are not enough, he added, stressing that there are emotional and other reasons that make open communication between Jerusalem and Baghdad impossible.

Though he faced backlash from other Iraqi officials, Yasseen was not recalled.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Deputy Director Thomas Homan, left, shakes hands with Iraqi Ambassador Fareed Yasseen, during a ceremony to return ancient artifacts, including cuneiform tablets, cylinder seals, and clay bullae, to Iraq, at the Residence of the Iraqi Ambassador to the United States, in Washington, Wednesday, May 2, 2018. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

The same year, three delegations of local leaders from Iraq reportedly made trips to Israel and held meetings with Israeli officials.

The delegations, totaling 15 Iraqis, met with Israeli academics, visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, and most significantly met with Israeli government officials, Hadashot TV news reported.

In 2018, the Foreign Ministrylaunched a Facebook pageuniquely dedicated to fostering ties with Iraq. Diplomats in Jerusalem said the Arabic-language page would serve as some sort of digital embassy to the war-torn country.

Israel had in recent months stepped up efforts to reach out to the country, arguing that Iraqis were interested in establishing ties with the Jewish state.

A month later, Iraqs representative at the 2017 Miss Universe pageant whose Instagram photo last year with her Israeli counterpart forced her family to flee the Middle Eastern country visited Israel and reunited with Miss Israel.

Miss Israel Adar Gandelsman (left) and Miss Iraq Sarah Idan share a moment at the 2017 Miss Universe beauty pageant, in a picture Idan posted to Instagram

In August of this year, a senior Foreign Ministry official said that Israel maintains some form of contact with Iraq.

While Israel maintained close ties with Iraqi Kurdish leaders in the 1960s and 1970s, Iraq was one of Israels leading adversaries until the toppling of the Saddam Hussein regime in 2003.

Iraqs 18,000 troops represented the largest single force fighting the nascent Jewish state in the 1948 War of Independence, even defeating Israeli forces in Jenin.Iraq also sent major expeditionary forces to fight Israel in 1967 and 1973, losing over 800 soldiers to IDF forces on the Golan Heights during the Yom Kippur War.

Saddam Husseins secret nuclear weapons program alarmed Israel, which ultimately destroyed the Osirak reactor in Iraq in 1981.

During the 1991 Gulf War, Hussein targeted the Jewish state with dozens of Scud missiles.

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Over 300 prominent Iraqis publicly call for full peace with Israel - The Times of Israel

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Posted By admin on September 27, 2021

This year Democracy Now! is celebrating our 25th anniversarythat's 25 years of bringing you fearless, independent reporting. Since our very first broadcast in 1996, Democracy Now! has refused to take government or corporate funding, because nothing is more important to us than our editorial independence. But that means we rely on you, our audience, for support. If everyone who tunes into Democracy Now! signed up for a monthly donation of just $10, we could cover our operating costs for the entire year. Please do your part today. Right now, a generous donor will even DOUBLE your first monthly gift, which means itll go twice as far! This is a challenging time for us all, but if you're able to start a new monthly donation, please dont delay. Were counting on your support. Thank you and remember, wearing a mask is an act of love.-Amy Goodman

This year Democracy Now! is celebrating our 25th anniversarythat's 25 years of bringing you fearless, independent reporting. Since our very first broadcast in 1996, Democracy Now! has refused to take government or corporate funding, because nothing is more important to us than our editorial independence. But that means we rely on you, our audience, for support. If everyone who tunes into Democracy Now! signed up for a monthly donation of just $10, we could cover our operating costs for the entire year. Please do your part today. Right now, a generous donor will even DOUBLE your first monthly gift, which means itll go twice as far! This is a challenging time for us all, but if you're able to start a new monthly donation, please dont delay. Were counting on your support. Thank you and remember, wearing a mask is an act of love.-Amy Goodman

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Mahmoud Abbas Gives Israel One Year to End Occupation - Democracy Now!

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Posted By admin on September 27, 2021

Novak never said he thought the alleged plan to free the hostage was a crime, according to copies of the text messages that were previously reported and whose authenticity were confirmed to POLITICO by Adams.

But on Aug. 31, a federal grand jury indicted a suspect for allegedly trying to defraud Gaetzs father. The scheme involved a Florida developer, Stephen Alford, who claimed that, in return for financing the hostage rescue, he and another man would use their influence in the federal government to ensure the congressman receives a presidential pardon, thus alleviating all his legal issues, the indictment said.

Novak, a former CNBC contributor, did not return calls and text messages for comment. But a spokesperson for the Consulate General of Israel in New York, where Novak works, said the consulate and Israel werent involved in the case in any way.

Jake Novak is a staffer at the Israeli Consulate in New York, and is not serving in any official diplomatic capacity. His correspondence mentioned in this story was not in any way, shape or form a part of his role at the consulate, said Itay Milner, a spokesperson for the consulate. After this matter was brought to our attention, it was made clear to Mr. Novak that this is not acceptable by the consulate general, he must never be involved in such matters again and that he must cut immediately all his connections to the issue.

After this story published, Gaetz sent a letter to the Israeli Ambassador Gilad Erdan requesting a meeting with him to discuss Novaks communications with Adams.

The allegation that a foreign official may be involved in a shakedown scheme of a U.S. congressman a highly unusual development in its own right could help provide a fuller picture of a scandal that has captivated the nations capital but where many pieces are still unknown. The allegations have been largely overlooked by most media outlets.

The Novak incident is one of the many twists and turns in the Gaetz case, replete with reports of drug-fueled orgies organized by a former local tax collector in Florida, Joel Greenberg, who pleaded guilty to a host of crimes, including sex-trafficking a minor who later became a porn star. Hes cooperating with federal authorities to bring a case against Gaetz in return for leniency. His sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 18.

The Gaetz case has jumped from straight news headlines to entertainment. A Gaetz-like congressman is to be featured Thursday in a Law & Order season-premier. And Gaetz was also invoked in a lawsuit against the online sugar daddy website SeekingArrangements that was filed against it by the former mistress of golfer Tiger Woods.

The revelations that an employee of a foreign government had represented his involvement in whats now considered a criminal fraud scheme targeting a sitting congressman doesnt speak to Gaetz guilt or innocence. But the situation is as rare as it is concerning even if its just a matter of appearance said Ronald E. Neumann, a career former ambassador and president of the American Academy of Diplomacy.

Its certainly problematic, if its true, Neumann said. Anytime you have criminal or potential criminal behavior, and somebody whos part of a foreign embassy or consulate, its a problem.

Adams, the cartoonist, became a cultural figure in his own right with the rise of Donald Trump, for whom he has expressed admiration.

People with connections to Israel had a high interest in me during the Trump days. Presumably to influence me, Adams told POLITICO via text message. Jake and I shared an interest in the mechanics of persuasion, and in interesting business/political stories in general. Most often the stuff with a persuasion or Israel angle. That was our initial connection people often tell me their scoops before they hit the news just to build credibility. Might have been that.

The Gaetz-related messages between the two men, first reported in The American Conservative and subsequently addressed in only a few other articles in conservative media or blogs, started March 27, three days before The New York Times first reported the sex-crimes investigation into the congressman. Novak had only begun working at the consulate earlier that month, according to his Twitter feed.

Scoop I cant report: Rep. Gaetz is the subject of a sex with minor. I trust the source. Charges/accusations apparently very credible', Novak wrote to Adams.

After the report became public, Novak then followed up with a told ya message to Adams. He also took issue with Gaetz and his father, former Florida Senate President Don Gaetz, for decrying what they called the extortion plot concerning the Levinson rescue plan.

Though Levinsons family members and most intelligence officials think hes dead, a private-sector intelligence operative named Bob Kent tried to make the case the CIA asset was still alive. Kent was also involved in a 2020 rescue effort that was partly financed by the State Department, a person familiar with the matter told POLITICO. In 2021, Kent joined forces with Alford the developer who was later indicted to reach out to Don Gaetz to fund another rescue.

But the elder Gaetz thought it was a swindle, reported it to the FBI and wore a wire when, at the suggestion of the two men, he met with a Levinson family attorney named David McGee. McGee was a former federal prosecutor who worked with Kent in the prior effort to free Levinson and who also knew Alford. Alford was indicted Aug. 31.

McGee has denied wrongdoing, as has Kent. McGee was previously involved with yet another rescue attempt, financed with $20 million from Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, who wanted his visa to the United States restored.

In the text message exchanges with Novak previously reported, Adams repeatedly cast doubt on the allegations against Gaetz and said the extortion counterclaim sounds credible. Has witnesses apparently.

Novak then replied as if he were part of the effort to get Gaetzs dad to secretly fund the rescue mission that was now in jeopardy.

The backstory is this is screwing up my efforts to free Bob Levinson, Novak wrote. I've got a commando team leader friend of mine nervously waiting for wire transfers to clear.

In another exchange, Novak indicted he had knowledge of the negotiations with Don Gaetz, saying the real documents do not extort. And we only asked for $25 million as an estimate at first. We came way down.

Months later, the indictment of Alford bore out what Novak said. The charging document accuses Alford of seeking $15.5 million to carry out the scheme.

After Novaks exchange with Adams leaked, Adams said he didnt know how it became public.

We have not communicated since, Adams told POLITICO. Im just as confused as you about why Jake had any involvement and why he thought he needed to tell me.

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The tangled tale of the Israel consulate, the Dilbert cartoonist and the Matt Gaetz case - POLITICO

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Posted By admin on September 27, 2021

Disclaimer: Early release articles are not considered as final versions. Any changes will be reflected in the online version in the month the article is officially released.

Author affiliations: The Israel Center for Disease Control, Ramat Gan, Israel (A. Glatman-Freedman, Y. Hershkovitz, Z. Kaufman, R. Dichtiar, L. Keinan-Boker, M. Bromberg); Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel (A. Glatman-Freedman, M. Bromberg); Haifa University, Haifa, Israel (L. Keinan-Boker)

Figure 1

Figure 1. Vaccine doses among adolescents and total severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infections, Israel, June 1August 26, 2021. A) Daily frequency of administration of first and second dose of BNT162b2...

In May 2021, the US Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency expanded existing authorization for BNT162b2 vaccine (Pfizer-BioNTech, https://www.pfizer.com) against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) to include its use in adolescents 1215 years of age (1,2). On June 2, 2021, the Israel Ministry of Health declared the availability of BNT162b2 vaccine for adolescents 1215 years of age (3) as a 2-dose regimen, given 21 days apart. By August 26, 2021, a total of 277,218 adolescents (46.1% of those eligible) had received 1 dose of the vaccine and 187,707 (31.2%) had received 2 doses (Figure 1, panel A). In mid-June 2021, after a month of extremely low SARS-CoV-2 activity in Israel, 2 local outbreaks erupted (46). These outbreaks marked the beginning of a new widespread SARS-CoV-2 outbreak in Israel (Figure 1, panel B), dominated by the B.1.617.2 (Delta) variant, which accounted for 93%99% of the sequenced viruses during July and August 2021 (7). We analyzed effectiveness of this vaccine among adolescents who had been vaccinated in the early stages of this outbreak in Israel. The study was approved by the superior ethical committee of the Israel Ministry of Health and included exemption from informed consent.

We performed a nationwide retrospective cohort study to estimate vaccine effectiveness against PCR-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infections among adolescent Israel residents 1215 years of age who had received the second vaccine dose during July 124, 2021. The data sources used are described in detail elsewhere (8). We estimated vaccine effectiveness and 95% CIs by using (1 incidence rate ratio 100) for 17, 814, 1521, and 2228 days after the second vaccine dose. Incidence rate ratio denotes the ratio of the rate of PCR-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infections in the vaccinated and unvaccinated groups.

We excluded from analysis adolescents who had had a documented SARS-CoV-2positive PCR result before the evaluation periods, regardless of their vaccination status. When several positive SARS-CoV2 test results were documented for the same person during the study period, we included only the first result in our analysis.

We determined the number of unvaccinated controls for each date during July 124, 2021, by omitting the number of fully vaccinated adolescent Israel residents 1215 years of age who had received the second BNT162b2 vaccine dose on a particular date from the total number who did not have a documented SARS-CoV-2positive test result and had not received only a single vaccine dose. We expressed the denominators of the vaccinated and unvaccinated groups in person-days.

Figure 2

Figure 2. Vaccine effectiveness against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection in adolescents 1215 years of age, by time after second dose of BNT162b2 vaccine (Pfizer-BioNTech, https://www.pfizer.com), Israel, 2021....

After administration of the second vaccine dose, crude vaccine effectiveness against laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection was 55.3% (95% CI 41.3%66.0%) in the first week, 87.1% (95% CI 81.0%91.2%) in the second week, 91.2% (87.4%93.8%) in the third week, and 88.2% (95% CI 85.0%90.7%) in the fourth week (Table; Figure 2). Vaccine effectiveness differed significantly between the first and subsequent weeks, but we found no statistically significant differences in vaccine effectiveness among the second, third, and fourth weeks. Because of the small number of cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection among vaccinated adolescents, we could not adjust for weekly vaccine effectiveness evaluation. However, adjustments for sex and epidemiologic week for days 828 after the second dose combined demonstrated adjusted vaccine effectiveness of 91.5% (95% CI 88.2%93.9%) against SARS-CoV-2 infection. We did not estimate vaccine effectiveness against symptomatic diseases because epidemiologic investigation was performed for 42% of vaccinated and 40% of unvaccinated adolescents in our cohort.

As of August 26, 2021, none of the vaccinated adolescents who became SARS-CoV-2positive on days 128 after the the second vaccine dose had been hospitalized. By that same date, among unvaccinated adolescents, 7 (0.38%) of 1,825 who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 by 17 days after vaccinated adolescents had received their second vaccine dose and 26 (0.32%) of 8,144 who tested positive on days 828 were hospitalized. Also by August 26, no vaccinated or unvaccinated SARS-CoV-2positive adolescents had died.

The BNT162b2 vaccination campaign for adolescents 1215 years of age in Israel coincided with the outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant. As such, the timnig enabled estimation of vaccine effectiveness against SARS-CoV-2 infection for this age group during predominant circulation of the Delta variant.

Our results demonstrate high vaccine effectiveness against SARS-CoV-2 infection in this population starting the second week after the second vaccine dose. These estimates are somewhat lower than those that had been estimated for persons 1639 years of age during the same time intervals after the second vaccine dose during circulation of the SARS-CoV-2 Alpha variant and wild-type virus in Israel (8). Specifically, adjusted vaccine effectiveness against SARS-CoV-2 infection for persons 1639 years of age was 93.2% (95% CI 91.9%94.2%) at 814 days, 96.7% (95% CI 95.8%97.4%) at 1521 days, and 96.6 (95% CI 95.7%97.3%) at 2228 days after receipt of the second vaccine dose. Although vaccine effectiveness estimates and 95% CIs during the circulation of the Alpha variant and the wild-type virus were adjusted for age, sex, and epidemiologic week, only minor differences in point estimates and 95% CIs were noted between crude and adjusted vaccine effectiveness (8).

The effectiveness estimate of 55.3% in the first week after the second dose probably reflects the effect of the first vaccine dose. This estimate is consistant with previous estimates of vaccine effectiveness 1420 days after the first dose (810).

Our findings are consistent with those of a recent study from the United Kingdom, which demonstarated vaccine effectiveness of 88.0% (95% CI 85.3%90.1%) against symptomatic disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant (11), compared with vaccine effectiveness of 93.7% (95% CI 91.6%95.3%) against disease caused by the Alpha variant among persons >16 years of age who had received 2 doses of BNT162b2 (11). However, that study addressed neither the interval between the 2 doses nor the exact interval between assessment of vaccine effectiveness and the date of the second dose (11).

As of September 2021, two controlled studies had assessed vaccine efficacy in adolescents, without specifying the SARS-CoV-2 variant (12,13). One study reported BNT162b2 vaccine efficacy of 100% against laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 >7 days after receipt of the second vaccine dose at 21 days after the first dose (12). The other study reported that vaccine efficacy of the mRNA-1273 vaccine 14 days after the second dose was difficult to assess because of the low incidence of laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 in the trial population (4 cases in the placebo group and 0 cases in the mRNA-1273 group) (13). Of note, the geometric mean ratio of neutralizing antibodies in adolescents receiving those vaccines was similar to or greater than that of young adults after receipt of 2 doses (12,13).

Behavioral and testing policy factors can potentially affect estimations of vaccine effectiveness. Behaviors that increase exposure to SARS-CoV-2 may be assumed by vaccinated or unvaccinated adolescents for different reasons and are difficult to measure. During the study period, SARS-CoV-2 testing was available in Israel regardless of vaccination status.

The recent rise in SARS-CoV-2 cases in Israel raised 2 concerns. The first concern was that BNT162b2 vaccineelicited immunity was waning. Waning of spike protein antibody levels was detected over time after receipt of a second dose of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines (14). The second concern was that the vaccine was not effective against the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant. However, our findings indicate that the BNT162b2 vaccine provides adolescents with highly effective short-term protection against the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant.

Dr. Glatman-Freedman is the director of the Infectious Diseases Unit in the Israel Center for Disease Control. She is affiliated academically with the School of Public Health at Tel Aviv University. Her primary research interests are the epidemiology of respiratory viruses, syndromic surveillance, and vaccine effectiveness.

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The conclusions, findings, and opinions expressed by authors contributing to this journal do not necessarily reflect the official position of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Public Health Service, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or the authors' affiliated institutions. Use of trade names is for identification only and does not imply endorsement by any of the groups named above.

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Effectiveness of BNT162b2 Vaccine in Adolescents during Outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 Delta Variant Infection, Israel, 2021 - CDC

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